Latest / DiceSized / Wish Hunter Fable: Sands of Favor - Part 1 [PUBLIC]

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Wish Hunter Fable: Sands of Favor - Part 1 [PUBLIC] · DiceSized

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  A story of self discovery that echoes from times upon desert
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  sands. In this Fable flashback, we
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  follow a young parable picking up right where we left him
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  following Wish Hunter Session 0 falling.
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  This is a Wish Hunter fable flashback The Sands of Faber.
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  And this is me, your DM Robert Whitehead.
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  And with me, as always, is my lovely table of friends and
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  family. Here we of course have.
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  George. Hey, it's G playing parable,
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  apparently starting out falling. Yeah, I mean, a little little
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  bit of a little bit of a spoiler there, but I mean, you already
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  had made the decision. You know, I gotta throw the
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  consequence at you, right? If we're gonna flashback, I'll
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  hold my optimism. I'm falling forward, falling,
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  falling. I'm continuing.
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  OK. Is he there?
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  Are we there? No, no we haven't.
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  I thought we were rewinding and character.
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  Yeah, no, I don't even know that about myself yet.
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  I am definitely going to be more anxious for formal parable than
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  everyone's, really. Unsure if I am continuing as I
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  as you plummet, but we'll learn more about that.
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  Plummeting the parable. I'm very excited I'm not
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  plummeting. I don't know what you're talking
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  about. No, I'm brushing past my face
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  that. Seems a little bit more
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  appropriate denial after such a massive decision.
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  That sounds about right. Parable, welcome, welcome,
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  welcome him to the table. And of course, Next up we have
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  Maya. Hey, it's Maya.
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  You can call me Maya. I will be playing a friend that
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  Parable meets along the way and you're just going to have to
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  find out more later. You are right, and his decision
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  will start a journey that will take him through forgotten
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  places, across an impossible desert, to the edge of fate
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  itself, perhaps, and beyond. But before we get to the rest of
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  that, we got to get to the last of our table, Savannah.
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  I have here. I'm looking forward to stepping
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  into this new character so that Parable can find some guidance
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  or some hindrance. PBD.
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  You're going to be mean to me. I don't want to.
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  Savannah doesn't want to. He's such a little guy.
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  We'll see. Oh boy, Parable definitely faced
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  many friends and foes along the way.
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  We'll have to see if whether you were an obstacle to him or an
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  ally and I'm excited to see which.
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  But I will mention one thing about our adventure.
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  We are doing character stat blocks that again are for a
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  fateful adventure. And so don't at me.
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  Our characters have abilities and they will be able to flavor
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  them for the reason why they might happen.
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  And I think for some they'll make sense and others?
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  Like I said, they're fateful. Don't at me.
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  Anyways, let's get on with it. Sorry to interrupt your
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  programming. Don't.
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  Fucking come for me have. You ever heard of fun?
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  I'm going to put. That on AT shirt have.
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  You ever? Heard of?
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  Fun. Don't fucking at me.
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  Before we get to other characters that might be here,
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  we really just have one to start.
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  We have to figure out how that resolved, and I think there is a
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  perfect place to drop into a little description of what's
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  going on for Parable Parable. You are falling.
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  The world spirals around you. No sky, no ground, only a vast
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  circular chamber stretching endlessly above and below.
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  Shelves curve along the walls, at times packed not with just
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  books and scrolls, but with tablets of ancient stone,
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  crystalline harmonics humming with lost voices, ink suspended
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  in liquid filled globes, wooden rings carved with intricate
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  symbols, and more a time paper. Winged constructs flutter pasts,
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  whispering forgotten riddles before vanishing into the
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  depths. At other times it is more
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  madding, as not even your senses can fully grasp the fall that
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  you were plummeting through. It has been much too long.
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  You've been falling for some time, long enough at least for
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  the weight of your decision to settle in.
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  What do? You do?
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  Yeah. It's a lot colder than I thought
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  it would be. I I thought this would be over
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  soon, whether I died or I, I could go somewhere.
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  I mean, I, I didn't know there were so many things that are.
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  I thought there were books down here, but I've only been as far
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  as the stone. I I didn't.
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  I didn't. And he's, he's just flooded with
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  the stimuli of everything that's going around him, the wind
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  rushing past him. I think he's he's like clutching
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  at his book on at his chest and he's like.
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  Brick, brick where? Where are you and?
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  I can I roll to see if I see brick?
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  Yeah, absolutely. Give me a perception check.
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  It has been quite some time and I think it's gotten, it got dark
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  pretty immediately, but at times there were sources of light,
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  like little bits of glowing crystal from the wall and other
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  arcane or oddly mundane sources as you pass down through that
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  the well. So it's become much more natural
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  the the deeper and deeper you get.
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  Let's see a perception check if I can tell you anymore besides
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  the rough stone that you kind of kind of have the vaguest sense
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  of as you fall. Yeah, I did.
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  I think I did skip how tightly shut my eyes are.
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  And as if. Yeah, yeah, I think, I think the
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  initial I I really skipped over, I think the initial shock of
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  like almost out of reverence, like so you're falling.
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  And as if you don't want to open your eyes out of like, you know,
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  maybe somebody surprising you or something that slow likes one
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  eye open the check. You're like, wait, you know, why
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  am I still falling type of feeling, but you know, almost
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  having wanting to hold that body position and that expression
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  because, you know, it feels disrespectful to what you're
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  doing almost to look around. But as I do, I think I start to
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  notice those things and try to find Brick 7.
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  Not enough to know where Brick is at.
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  It's been long enough where at first he was fluttering next to
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  you for a while. And he typically glows with a
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  subtle sense of arcane energy as he kind of floats by your side.
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  But as he fell deeper and deeper with that check, you did at
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  least notice before you lost sight of him that he was
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  starting to lose a consistent glow and was more and more
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  flickering as he fell. And, and it's been so long and,
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  and things have gotten weird as you've fallen felt at times it
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  felt like your very beam was stretched to the extent of
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  itself and then snapped back in. And others it felt like a
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  burning, the flash of the hottest, hottest heat and a
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  flash of the hottest cold. And throughout all of that, you
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  you think you grabbed him, but you've gone near numb at this
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  point, with the rush of the wind and the cold that has become at
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  least, if not friendly, a familiar constant within the
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  past few hours. And as you.
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  Fall a few hours. You are unable to tell where you
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  hold. It's hard to even feel your
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  fingertips. At this point, yeah, I'm
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  imagining a slow eye opening after really slowly rotating in
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  the shape that I was, which is probably about to good position
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  and but right. But as I open my eyes, I think
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  there's a want to look around what sends me into a tumble,
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  which is kind of keeps me from accurately identifying anything.
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  But I see that blinking and I feel that I don't have brick
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  with me more than anything, which makes me clutch the good
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  book closer and and hope that in everything that I've read where
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  of falling that things are supposed to fall at the same
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  rate. I why am I?
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  Why am I so far away from him and almost feels like he's
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  accelerating away from one of his last friends?
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  I think as you have that feeling, give me a Dexterity
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  safe and throw here. 17. 17 is more than enough to As you open
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  your eyes, notice the many oddities that you fall past.
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  I would ask you to describe what you so narrowly dodge as at some
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  point you had your eyes open and saw like some of the few things
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  that I described, but this has been a long drop.
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  There's more. I don't have the time to list
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  the number of types of information stored in in
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  interesting ways. Yeah.
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  What do you very narrowly bash yourself into, but skillfully
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  enough dodge out of the way? Yeah, I I think I am imagining
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  things stored and information stored in glass and light,
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  crystal rock grown almost in certain ways, wood carved
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  elaborately with just floating in space and maybe just how it's
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  designed interlockingly describe something that we don't know.
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  But I think what really I dodge is I'm imagining almost like a
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  malfunction in one of these information devices and it's
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  like Stalag tided across the entire well to the other side.
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  So there's basic like a a beam of information material that I
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  like. I'm like, what is that as I'm
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  falling? You can see.
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  Like a almost a corrupted aspect of crystalline circuitry that
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  seemed seems naturally grown but becomes geometric at a point
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  where it's this the natural shape seems to store the
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  information. You can almost hear it humming
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  to you naturally, but as you near this part that becomes
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  oddly and overly geometric, that's spikes out into the
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  middle of this ever narrowing circular well.
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  You are just able to dodge out of the way and you feel the echo
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  of information twisted, as if a corrupted entity lived within
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  that and had been spawned by that.
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  That information long gone to secret and unused.
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  I love that I'm imagining like, you know, two books open on
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  these side either side of the well with geometric branches of
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  of energy growing out of them and almost.
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  Like, yeah, and they knew. But they haven't, yeah, they
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  haven't met in the middle. So like I fall almost right
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  through the little circle of the mist, shaking hands in the
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  middle and I pass through. Can I roll if I see anything on
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  them or do I notice anything as I pass the?
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  Just like all the information that you pass like.
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  Yeah, like this seems like information out in the open.
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  Is there anything that I can gleam as I'm passing through?
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  This seems like most of the information is the is old enough
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  or odd enough. I would say it's.
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  It would take a long time to ascertain its meaning, albeit
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  there are some types that you pass that seem technologically.
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  Advanced enough or magically enhanced enough to pass along
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  their meaning? I would again ask you what is 11
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  type of? Category of information that
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  parable would be looking for what would draw his attention
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  mentally? I think I noticed the material
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  of like where the two branches are meeting and I'm like that
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  that stone, it looks like brick. Nice.
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  OK, cool. Absolutely.
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  As you see where the two branches are meeting, as you
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  just dodge out of the way, you're looking up on your back.
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  The wind is rushing past and you see that at the end of the
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  corruption in between where those two bits of knowledge are
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  trying to branch, they they're creating something just like,
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  yeah, very give me a give me a roll here to see if you can
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  fully ascertain. But you do a sense an odd
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  similarity to brick as you fall. It's a brick generator.
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  So 13, yeah, enough to notice that.
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  It is a specific thing that looks different than these two
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  sources of information, ideas trying to connect within the
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  well, like 2 neurons trying to snap together and form.
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  You see that that thing that exists at the center first of
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  all does bear a striking similarity to brick and has the
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  same kind of arcane rooms. These wards that don't really
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  match up with any sort of specific language, they just are
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  seen to be natural symbols representing intention and will.
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  These symbols you can see in this moment represent the
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  binding, I guess of two ideas, just how this stone seemed to be
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  so powerfully activated by your binding to the count.
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  And the strength. Of your oath brick might be a
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  natural forming. Of.
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  A binding and I think a future parable and other wish hunters
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  of the third well might also know what it's like to see a
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  binding stone created out of the the want for two things to
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  connect. In this case 2 very natural lost
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  secret lore ridden ideas with him as well, but in parables
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  case O's and for now he is unsure where Brick is as he
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  falls and you are starting to notice that the walls are
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  continuing to narrow with at this point.
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  As we pass, it's weird to be able to have time to contemplate
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  as you're falling and there is this feverish sweat that's
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  building on a skin which is only making him colder.
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  And he's seems to look to the left and see fact and fiction on
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  the right, meeting in the middle of ideas of truth and oath.
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  And something kind of sparks in his imagination of like.
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  I did this on purpose. And he kind of is fully
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  recognizing his choice to jump. I think he's, but he didn't
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  expect to have enough time to reconcile that decision.
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  As soon as you feel that reconciliation, you see that
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  there is a bottom and it is coming out fast.
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  What do you do? You have about two rounds.
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  You're. IE about 1000 feet and with that
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  perception check is what allows you to see that like it does
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  seem to be a bottom as it is approaching.
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  As parables falling and noticing the ground get closer and it's
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  coming to a senses of survival which was not prevalent in his
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  brain as he jumped off the ledge at the top of the book.
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  Well, did not expect to reach down here consciously, and he is
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  going to look to he's going to start shaping his body in the
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  fall because he's gotten really familiar with these winds
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  passing up, but he takes his numb limbs and stretches of
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  shakingly outside. And and says come on, come on.
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  And he starts trying to drift towards one of the walls.
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  In this moment, I think as you make a decision and a plan.
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  You hit that 500 feet mark as give me an acrobatic stretch to
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  see how well you position your body at the same time that
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  you're making this maneuver. You hear 2 voices of advice.
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  It's it's hard to tell if they're even talking to you.
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  They're just like voices that pop into your head of a way that
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  might benefit you in this scenario as to help or prevent
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  your fall. How sticky are your fingers
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  feeling? What?
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  What my fingers are? Who said that?
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  The wind will always billow in the right direction.
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  What is going on with my mind? I'm losing my mind and I'm about
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  to hit the ground. The wind, sticky fingers, sticky
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  fingers, and he's going to pull out his pen blade and he's going
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  to try to jab it into the wall to slow his descent because
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  he's, I think he's going to hope that whatever he's he jams his
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  his pen blade into is going to be not stone, hopefully.
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  Has Parable ever shaped his this pen blade because I I imagine
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  that this. Came as a gift from the count.
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  Has Parable ever been actually allowed to use it in sword form?
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  I don't think he knows it's a a sword actually.
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  I think that's a good a good point.
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  I think he pulls out the sharpest, strongest objects he
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  has on his vicinity to stab into the wall to try to slow his
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  descent. Young Parable.
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  Young Parable doesn't have a pen blade.
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  Interesting. So as you reach to pull
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  something out, you do indeed at first pull out a pen and
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  realize. Oh God.
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  This is the sharpest thing that you have, and from your pocket
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  you pull it and see it. Hope fades, You stab forward and
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  a gleaming blade appears, one that Parable comes to know
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  intimately. Yes, much better than a finger.
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  What I think I see the blade for just a split second and almost
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  honestly I don't believe it for a moment.
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  I knew there was something special about the pen, but I
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  didn't know what it was. And I think I see it extend and
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  then disappear into what it stabs into.
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  So I'm just, I'm holding the pen, almost like suspended
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  against the material I've stabbed into, and I hold on for
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  dear fucking life. Awesome, fantastic.
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  Let the wind fill your sails and follow the Gale.
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  Blowing straight down. Bellowing as best as you can and
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  I'll give you advantage with that.
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  Acrobatics check and also give you a strength check for that
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  second turn as you. Fall.
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  To better stop your descent. Cool 13. 13 is going to save
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  here as you are able to position your body in a way to just
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  enough like that, one weird wispy voice said.
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  Billow with the wind. I don't know what was it.
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  The wind will billow in right direction or something.
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  I kind of. Cryptic and helpful.
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  At the same time I think it makes me think of the good book
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  and I I have it clutched to my chest but I grab it desperately
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  with both hands to get to the side of the wall before we get
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  to the pen blade and I lift it above my head and I angle it
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  like a rudder trying to fall and pass the wind to move me towards
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  the. End Lovely.
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  I love what those sound like. At first you think you're you
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  might be able to open it and and open its binding, but it's has
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  long it. It still seems to refuse your
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  attempts to open if you've made any.
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  Oh. Come on.
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  And I I just turn it sideways and I hold it with its binding
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  closed and hope it's enough. Yes, and as you slice through
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  the wind with the good book unbonded and closed, you
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  successfully angle yourself to kind of slow yourself in the air
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  to make your make sure that you're not taking any damage as
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  you stab into the wall. Let's see the strength check
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  that I will also allow with advantage due to the help.
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  Out of be in that 20. What does this look like as
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  again, regardless of parables fantastic talent now I was there
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  past besides his his youth where before he met the count chance
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  where he's acted physically athletically had to had to save
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  himself in such a way. Honestly, it's a lot smaller and
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  softer than he. I think he remembers reaching up
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  for his mom's hand. I think there's a lot of
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  purposefulness in it and it's a eyes closed motion.
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  So he brings the the good book back down to his chest, reaches
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  for the pen, and I think it is stone that he steps into.
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  And fucking tastic as you do not realize or understand your own
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  strength as you stab through stone itself to slow your
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  descent. I think I just clicked the pen.
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  I don't think I actually make a stabbing motion.
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  I think I just. Flicked the pen with the net 20.
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  I think I, I think there's intuition there then, yeah.
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  So cool parable, I would love to say that that was success that
• 20:14
  you landed softly, but parable you feared falls for a reason
• 20:19
  and the Max falling damage is typically 20D6.
• 20:23
  With that help you were able to have that to 10D6, but I will
• 20:28
  still be rolling that for falling damage as you you can
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  describe to me what it looks like as you do out of against
• 20:36
  all odds, slow a descent that seemed unslowable in a way that
• 20:41
  allows you survivability at the end of this.
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  I think I I stab at my my blade into what something that feels
• 20:48
  like lava rock and I just see a glowing slice down that rock and
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  it actually slows me almost to a stop and then it breaks and
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  there's no more wall. I almost imagine like an opening
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  into a cavern. It is such a such a cavernous
• 21:04
  opening that it would be an insanely athletic feat to try to
• 21:08
  climb what you fall into back out.
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  And it is that opening and underhang that makes it so
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  difficult as you, as you fully fall.
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  I feel like the wall turns into a ceiling and I see this last of
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  the stone break, maybe even the glowing line of the the cut and
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  I just start falling again and then my and my stomach catches
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  again. I go it's start step right back
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  into losing the stomach. Insane.
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  OK, let's see. Oh, we're rolling a little high.
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  That is going to be 34 damage. Jeez.
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  Go to win wars. All right, parable.
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  I'll describe what you fall into, which is surrounding you,
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  these vast circular walls of the book.
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  Well. Rise beyond sight, and as you
• 21:56
  look up, the dust kind of settles around you, whether dust
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  or sand, as it just seems to be the degradation of thousands of
• 22:07
  scraps of parchment and intermixed with, again, oddities
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  of all kinds of different ways of keeping information.
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  Knotted strings, musical instruments that seem meant to
• 22:19
  be played that you can't figure out quite how as you seem just
• 22:22
  see just oddities around the entire room.
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  What does my fall look like? Your fall I think looks like.
• 22:29
  Like what is hitting the ground look like I think.
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  I think I would imagine that it's ugly because it's like a
• 22:35
  it's 100 foot fall from the top of the cavern where grace is
• 22:39
  lost at that At that height, no body position looks graceful as
• 22:45
  you just have to deal with the crunch of.
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  I think I bounce. I think I honestly like I I'm
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  sprawling after the sword breaks.
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  I I'm gripping the pen in the book, but I'm just spinning and
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  I think that I hit the ground on my back.
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  I bounce and roll and I'm the face.
• 23:03
  I'm face down at 1st and just just breathing as in like.
• 23:08
  The parchment. Yeah, and there's.
• 23:09
  Pieces falling around you like you fell into a down pillow and.
• 23:13
  I only noticed the parchment because it just ploofs around me
• 23:16
  like that. That's brilliant.
• 23:17
  Yeah, I really feel an aura of because I can.
• 23:20
  I've heard papers so much. I just hear it as I'm breathing
• 23:22
  this dust and and mold into my my breath but trying to take the
• 23:27
  deepest breaths that I can with. That Matt 20, you survived that
• 23:30
  much better than you could have, and I will further describe what
• 23:35
  you see around you. Even the the stone and the
• 23:40
  crystal and the odd materials that surround you and make up
• 23:43
  this well are carved, whether it be weathered bone or gleaming
• 23:49
  crystal or ancient metal, or even at times fused within like
• 23:55
  panes of fractured glass. These running seams you've never
• 23:59
  seen. Light images move in such a way
• 24:02
  as if magic captured within glass.
• 24:06
  Each medium holds a tail. Some never finished, some never
• 24:09
  told. The air taste of parchment and
• 24:12
  sand. And at the center of this vast
• 24:15
  Chamber of lost wisdom, atop a mountain of half written scraps,
• 24:20
  a lone figure sits. His ankles are bound by golden
• 24:25
  chains, their links emblazoned with the mark of a coin.
• 24:30
  His presence, like the well itself, feels ancient.
• 24:36
  Do you hear that, Shy? He nods.
• 24:40
  I thought so too. Sounded important, as he has of
• 24:46
  course heard that. This, this collapse, this odd
• 24:48
  figure as he turns and looks to you.
• 24:50
  Parable, This figure turns to you, and you see a young human
• 24:54
  of similar years. It's still he feels ancient
• 24:58
  somehow. No, I don't think we should say
• 25:03
  anything yet. He's still listening to the
• 25:05
  drips. And you can see now that there's
• 25:08
  part of a well you haven't noticed, which are at the very
• 25:11
  edges, as if, as if collecting moisture out of the air, but
• 25:19
  it's not water. It's like this glimmering energy
• 25:21
  at the edge of the well that's kind of trails around in a
• 25:26
  little stream at the very edge, and it seems to drip upward.
• 25:31
  For a moment you see it, and then it just kind of disappears
• 25:34
  out of reality. They don't fly up and out of the
• 25:37
  well. They just, it's just kind of
• 25:38
  like. Not even straight up.
• 25:39
  It's like up and out. Yeah, it's, it's like just of
• 25:42
  their own accord, just this little stream that seems to be
• 25:44
  sending out little bits of magical essence that you can't
• 25:47
  really ascertain what, but you can tell that he's right.
• 25:51
  They they were kind of they kind of entranced you for a moment.
• 25:53
  You've been sitting here stunned for longer than you would care
• 25:57
  to admit. As he says, those kept our
• 25:59
  attention too, when we were down here.
• 26:00
  First when we were new to the well.
• 26:03
  Give him time. I think Parable's eyes are still
• 26:06
  closed. He's laying at a stomach after
• 26:09
  taking the fall, and he first smells more moisture than he
• 26:15
  expected. He's noticing like as if you
• 26:17
  know, with the rate with water dripping upwards.
• 26:19
  I'm almost imagining fog around like clouds.
• 26:22
  Like it does give. You an odd sense of mist that
• 26:25
  starts to build at the very bottom of the well.
• 26:27
  And I think I kind of try to, but the first thing that makes
• 26:32
  me want to stand up is maybe that the air is a little bit
• 26:34
  dryer, a little bit higher up off of the ground.
• 26:37
  And I pick my head up slightly and kind of open my eyes subtly.
• 26:40
  And I, I, I first go to where my ears been hearing, which are
• 26:44
  these drips. And I think I don't even really
• 26:47
  recognize the talking at first. I think I just it's be it's
• 26:52
  weird to hear rain not falling straight down.
• 26:55
  It's it's like a such a specific pattern that my my ear was used
• 26:58
  to and to hear it kind of sporadically dripping off in
• 27:01
  these directions would make would make parable kind of
• 27:03
  psychedelically engaged. I think he'd be just in pain and
• 27:08
  look and listening to, like trying to get a gauge with his
• 27:11
  ears where he is and didn't even hear the voices.
• 27:15
  As Parable is listening, he finally turns his gaze downward.
• 27:19
  And one of the scraps of paper that falls in front of him is
• 27:23
  just a torn corner that says at the bottom of the well just over
• 27:27
  there. And he looks up.
• 27:29
  As you look. Up.
• 27:31
  You. Hear and see this figure for the
• 27:32
  first time again, as if speaking to someone who is not there that
• 27:37
  you can see. And he says, But if we don't
• 27:41
  speak, how we know we're real? That's a good.
• 27:46
  Point. Maybe he believes enough, then
• 27:50
  he again louder as he hesitates in that moment.
• 27:54
  Maybe if he believes enough, we will be and the echo returns
• 27:59
  from the well. If he believes enough, we will.
• 28:05
  Be He looks at you and he says you can call me twice, you can
• 28:08
  call me twice. I think Parable still thinks
• 28:12
  that he's hearing voices even though he's looking at an image
• 28:15
  of someone and he's like, and these voices in my head, they're
• 28:19
  speaking more than once and they're calling themselves
• 28:22
  things. Yeah, it goes as twice.
• 28:26
  Twice A what? Oh my God.
• 28:30
  You're there's someone else down here.
• 28:33
  Where's Brick? Where is it?
• 28:34
  Where is. Take your time.
• 28:35
  It takes a while to get used to it.
• 28:37
  It's an odd sense of existence in this place.
• 28:41
  You're not actually walking right now.
• 28:43
  It's more of like a. It's hard to explain and like I
• 28:47
  said, take your time. Parable sees 22 beings in front
• 28:50
  of them. You see just one.
• 28:52
  Just one. The echo speaks.
• 28:55
  The echo that speaks is the what seems to be the echo of the
• 28:58
  well. I think Parable looks around,
• 29:01
  regresses his bearings. He tries to stand up.
• 29:04
  Honestly, can I roll to see if I can stand up?
• 29:06
  Give me a Constitution saving throw to see if you can stand of
• 29:10
  your own attempt, but as you go to struggle, he says I'd help
• 29:15
  and then shakes the chain as you hear way too many links beneath.
• 29:21
  Like in the end of the cavern, like a depth of the chain, the.
• 29:25
  Cavern because he sits atop of a massive pile of scraps and you
• 29:28
  can see like some of them are written in languages that you
• 29:31
  recognize either older than you could possibly know scraps of
• 29:34
  stories as he says I would help, but I'm preoccupied and I also
• 29:40
  if I if I don't pay attention to her, yes, I'm listening shy
• 29:45
  don't don't go away. He looks to me and says sorry I
• 29:50
  have a friend and if I stop thinking about her she
• 29:52
  disappears and she doesn't like that so.
• 29:55
  Parable's going to try to stand up and then 20/30/20.
• 30:00
  I think Parable actually then stands up quickly through the
• 30:04
  pain, sucks in his breath because he's accustomed to it,
• 30:07
  and takes a almost stoic stance and introduces himself.
• 30:13
  I'm Parable. It's nice to meet you, Sir.
• 30:17
  What is your name? I had a name before, I think it
• 30:21
  was Octavian, but my friends called me twice.
• 30:26
  I like to think Octavian. Those names sound familiar, but
• 30:32
  I I'm sorry, I'm just in. I think I took quite a fall.
• 30:37
  Are you talking to someone? Just my friend her, her name is
• 30:40
  shy. She wouldn't mind me Speaking of
• 30:42
  you. It's it's just her name.
• 30:43
  And like I said, if I don't think of her, she disappears.
• 30:46
  So just quite like that. And I like to speak to her as
• 30:50
  often as I can. Parable, being kind of
• 30:52
  accustomed to imaginary friends, turns to twice his side, just to
• 30:56
  the left of his. Ah, it's nice to meet you,
• 30:59
  Shahi. And vows and.
• 31:02
  I I love. That he started to walk, I think
• 31:05
  as best as he can up to twice up to the top of the pile.
• 31:10
  But he's like slow climbing with a forearm as he clutches his
• 31:12
  side with a good book under that arm.
• 31:14
  And he's talking as he as he goes and he's like.
• 31:17
  Could you come down? I'm, I'm feeling a little torn
• 31:21
  up. Is there any way that you could
• 31:22
  meet me down here? I don't know if I can climb all
• 31:23
  the way up there. Oh yes, I, I mean, I guess now
• 31:25
  that you're up, I could I could at least introduce myself
• 31:28
  properly. And he kind of struggles and
• 31:30
  makes his way down kind of half falling at different times.
• 31:32
  He looks the young is the fact that he seems vulnerable.
• 31:36
  He seems kind of he's been down here a long time.
• 31:39
  He's this this being whatever it is for you're getting the sense
• 31:43
  of ancientness out of him. And so being, it's.
• 31:45
  Harder in your mind then. In person, as he struggles down
• 31:51
  in a very humanly way down this pile of scraps and gets to the
• 31:54
  very edge of it in here and reaches the edge of order again.
• 31:59
  Golden chains emblazoned with a coin.
• 32:02
  And he says, bound with my past, as we all are.
• 32:07
  Did you, did you fall to? Did did count chance send you
• 32:09
  down here? I I I jumped myself.
• 32:13
  I asked that question to Shy quite often and suddenly you go
• 32:18
  to flash of him, probably one of the earlier times when he'd just
• 32:22
  fallen to the well. You see him speaking to that
• 32:25
  echo twice. It's cross legged in this one,
• 32:29
  upon a patch of smooth stone. There is no massive pile of half
• 32:35
  written stories quite yet. Idly tapping his fingers against
• 32:38
  his knee. Chai, are you there?
• 32:44
  I think you are. I think you always are.
• 32:46
  He looks sad, like he hasn't actually heard her voice yet.
• 32:49
  He sounds thoughtful. You don't like to speak first.
• 32:52
  That's, that's all right. I don't mind waiting.
• 32:54
  I don't mind waiting. You never say anything new, do
• 32:57
  you? Or maybe I just don't ask the
• 33:01
  right questions. In this vision, the silence kind
• 33:05
  of holds a beat too long as Twice looks at you and says, In
• 33:09
  this moment, I just don't always ask the right questions.
• 33:14
  But how did how did you get down here?
• 33:17
  I double over with the breath that I'm taking and kind of
• 33:20
  brace myself on the papers. And can I actually roll a quick
• 33:24
  perception on the papers of the pile?
• 33:27
  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
• 33:28
  Investigation or perception Rover?
• 33:32
  Moving over with investigation. That's just Nate, then.
• 33:35
  You see one scrap of paper that says baby shoes.
• 33:44
  Oh wait, no, I forgot the saddest part.
• 33:47
  Never worn. Fuck, I was see that was an
• 33:51
  early. Draft.
• 33:52
  That was an early. Draft.
• 33:54
  That little system levity there. I think I look around at half
• 34:00
  written and complete poems and songs and different forms of
• 34:06
  writing all around me and I look back up at at twice.
• 34:09
  I guess how long have you been down here?
• 34:11
  If you're, you can't tell me how.
• 34:13
  If you can't tell me how she said it first, but I I can't
• 34:18
  tell you how. So you wouldn't, you wouldn't
• 34:20
  know a way out then. Oh, I know the way out, I just
• 34:24
  can't take it. That's that's the hourglass
• 34:28
  exit. Parable looks down for the first
• 34:31
  time, I think, with all awareness at the chain.
• 34:35
  And can I look to see the depths of how far it goes into the
• 34:42
  distance? Perception would just reveal
• 34:43
  that it seems like it goes on. Into the dark.
• 34:46
  Into the dark. The dark is specifically down,
• 34:49
  and it seems like it's beneath somewhere the massive scrap of
• 34:53
  paper. You can see just the edge of the
• 34:55
  massive void that that chain disappears into.
• 34:58
  I think looking at the the chain and the symbols on it and seeing
• 35:05
  this this person apparently bound.
• 35:08
  I I know what it's like to be trapped.
• 35:11
  To be bound. Is there a way that I could help
• 35:14
  you? Bends over in pain again.
• 35:18
  I chose this for myself unfortunately.
• 35:20
  Why would you chain yourself down here?
• 35:22
  I was offered a choice, one that I didn't want to make, one that
• 35:27
  I had to make, and I made it for good reasons.
• 35:32
  In a way, I am paying for my my past mistakes.
• 35:36
  And he looks at the links of the chain specifically.
• 35:39
  He looks at you in that ancient way again.
• 35:44
  And he says it was through asking the right questions and
• 35:50
  talking with shy. And he this time kind of repeats
• 35:56
  your earlier question and just says, I think this one's kind of
• 35:59
  sassy, as he says. And if I'm down here kind of
• 36:02
  imitating you, mocking you in like a kind of playful way, if
• 36:06
  I'm down here, do you think I fell or did I jump?
• 36:10
  I fell, I jumped, and I jumped just rings much louder in the
• 36:15
  echo. And he says, that's why I'm down
• 36:18
  here. I think it's your turn to ask.
• 36:22
  Parables actually going to feel like he opens his eyes to that
• 36:26
  statement for the first time and he's going to, I think,
• 36:28
  accidentally cast divine sense. I think it's just going to catch
• 36:31
  him off guard. I don't know if it will help him
• 36:34
  in the moment, but I think his eyes just suddenly kind of glow
• 36:37
  a little gold in the center. Absolutely give me a perception
• 36:40
  check with advantage here to again spot maybe what he was
• 36:43
  talking about with the hourglass exit.
• 36:45
  That's 21. With a 21 your divine sense
• 36:50
  draws your gaze kind of all around you as you realize it's
• 36:54
  not just the glowing weird water at the edge of the chamber that
• 36:59
  is the magical thing here. You're noticing now the tiniest
• 37:03
  bits of fine, fine sand are starting to fill the chamber.
• 37:08
  At first it was so fine as to be mixing with the mist and just
• 37:12
  settling, and you can see on twice his face a little bit of
• 37:20
  holding something back as you notice that it's starting to
• 37:23
  grow with an increasing rate, this magical and glowing sand
• 37:27
  that begins to fall. Is that always happen that?
• 37:30
  Well, the the hourglass exits kind of all around you.
• 37:33
  It's a it's a bad name. I know I wrote it and I wasn't
• 37:36
  really sure, but it it's kind of a it's weirder to say it's the
• 37:40
  crack in your soul. So is is that where you should
• 37:43
  look? Even if they're all around us
• 37:45
  right now, This place is really odd.
• 37:46
  You should just however you feel pain, look there.
• 37:49
  Is is that sand? Still is is that it's getting
• 37:52
  bigger. Don't worry, we have a few turns
• 37:54
  and he looks towards an hourglass in his hand that he's
• 37:56
  holding that is currently dropping sand.
• 38:00
  And he says, as you look at it, he says don't, don't think
• 38:04
  about. I have.
• 38:06
  I have a role, I have rules. I'm bound to this place.
• 38:09
  But what about you and shy? We've made our choice, as
• 38:12
  difficult as it may be. Well, what if I ask her shy?
• 38:15
  Do you want to come? Markable silence, notable
• 38:21
  silence as your echo just falls flat but you see him holding as
• 38:26
  he says. We have a few turns, don't worry
• 38:28
  just yet. I wasn't going to tell you into
• 38:30
  the 3rd or the 4th, which I think that's how many we have.
• 38:33
  I am for the players at home. I do have an actual hourglass
• 38:36
  that I flipped just randomly at the table.
• 38:38
  It was really great for drama if anyone else wants to do it.
• 38:41
  But Parable, I think twice is this odd and mysterious
• 38:47
  individual is saying he's bound here, but it was by choice.
• 38:51
  He jumped, he didn't fall and he found more of himself by
• 38:55
  speaking with his own echo. It's up to Parable about whether
• 39:00
  he takes that advice. I think with that, with your
• 39:03
  roles, you're you're able to tell that he insinuates that the
• 39:07
  way out into the hourglass exit is to speak with yourself, look
• 39:10
  into your inner pain, find the the crack in your soul and find
• 39:14
  the way out here. I think I look back down at the
• 39:17
  first poem that I saw about baby shoes.
• 39:21
  I take a moment to myself and I remember my mom and I remember
• 39:28
  things before count chance and that alone makes me burn with
• 39:33
  anger. I I find myself just immediately
• 39:37
  overwhelmed and consumed by the idea and soul point and purpose
• 39:43
  to violently if I have to end chance.
• 39:51
  In this moment, a memory you have been essentially repressing
• 39:55
  ever since you broke your oath that came flooding back.
• 39:59
  As you go to step up towards your echo, you find yourself in
• 40:03
  the throne room awaiting the granting a favor ceremony.
• 40:05
  Just one wish was accepted to be granted for that ceremony.
• 40:09
  It is one that Parable had refused to make before.
• 40:12
  Every time the count had asked three times Parable had refused.
• 40:16
  The counts of ire had been severe.
• 40:19
  Upon parables initial hesitation, the count dismissed
• 40:23
  his court and left Parable to consider his choices.
• 40:29
  What was that wish? Why did Parable refuse?
• 40:33
  I think it's when I realized the the consequences and someone
• 40:40
  wished for a child and I saw the process of what would happen if
• 40:46
  someone losing 1 and almost just as if like an unconsensual
• 40:52
  adoption would be happening with where I thought I was generating
• 40:56
  babies. I was making new souls initially
• 40:59
  with the wishing when I when I understood the reasoning and the
• 41:03
  consequences of the give and the take parable said no.
• 41:07
  Yes, this was one where you would caught the count
• 41:10
  discussing the specifics of the contract of granting a favor
• 41:13
  where it's stated in kind of the subtext that oh, by the way,
• 41:18
  this is going to be the function of the wish.
• 41:22
  However, we are going to modify it in a way so that well, you
• 41:29
  can't make babies and you can't resurrect souls that don't want
• 41:33
  to be resurrected. And so, you know, without
• 41:35
  consent, there's just. Anyways, we're going to have to
• 41:38
  kill some parents and you guys are going to be essentially
• 41:40
  adopting. But it was hidden in the subtext
• 41:42
  and parable at the time found it and the memory hits hard and
• 41:46
  hits home. That's why the wishes felt so
• 41:49
  different. I didn't make any child, I
• 41:53
  killed its parents. And just pass them along.
• 41:56
  However it worked, these the odds amounts of fuckery that you
• 42:00
  had to do in the subtext of these wishes, and then your
• 42:04
  memory was erased, typically upon the wishing of it and if
• 42:07
  not more wishes were granted that day.
• 42:11
  If there's one thing parable could have wished for, I think
• 42:15
  it was this, and you're fully able to tell me now, but I think
• 42:18
  as you remember the full extent of this memory.
• 42:20
  Instead, on that day when you refused 3 times into no count,
• 42:24
  no count, no count, you whispered holding the power of a
• 42:28
  wish and said, I wish you had a change of heart.
• 42:33
  Almost out of a knowledge that I know that this person can be
• 42:38
  different because of how well they can fake their kindness,
• 42:42
  that there's a genuinity they're choosing not to, to the
• 42:45
  compassion they're choosing not to harness.
• 42:48
  And I think I honestly say. I wish you would be different.
• 42:57
  Beautiful, and as you say, I wish you would be different in
• 43:01
  this memory, the count that looks at you expression that you
• 43:07
  have forgotten, one of anger, arrogance, indignance, not only
• 43:17
  as someone. Who was your master?
• 43:22
  But also as a spellcaster, you see him rise up in a fury that
• 43:26
  he you hadn't seen this level of poise and talent from him as a
• 43:30
  spellcaster as he swats down that spell, or at least that the
• 43:36
  effect of that wish and you can see it.
• 43:39
  I feel like someone shoved vomit back in my mouth from growing
• 43:42
  up. I feel like somebody just pushed
• 43:44
  my, my soul they like they, they played tennis with my soul like
• 43:49
  they, they. You can feel just like the the
• 43:51
  absolute torsion of this as you see the wish still with your
• 43:55
  divine sense activated for the first time.
• 43:57
  Now through the lens of this memory you see it still kind of
• 44:01
  dance around his head as he has kept it in stasis and at Bay
• 44:05
  away from himself. Your wish for him to be
• 44:08
  different as that was the most severe time that parable was
• 44:11
  kept to the book. Well, as you land to have that
• 44:14
  memory, have that flash and the echo of the well calls to you.
• 44:19
  I think it's first an inaudible scream because the realization
• 44:24
  of, I think Parable knew the mundane aspects of these wishes
• 44:30
  and how he was killing people to generate benefits for others and
• 44:36
  in a lot of different facets of evil that he didn't realize.
• 44:40
  I think that realization hits him now and he screams.
• 44:44
  He, he, it's almost a moan of sadness or what he's done.
• 44:49
  He screams. How can I make this right?
• 44:53
  Make this right. Make this right, this right.
• 44:57
  Words come to you in this moment as if you've already set them.
• 45:05
  The silence breeze between parables, words swallowed by the
• 45:09
  endless vault of the book will. And then it returns.
• 45:13
  And it does not return unchanged.
• 45:17
  The path ahead is uncertain. The path ahead is uncertain,
• 45:22
  Echo agrees. And yet I walk it.
• 45:26
  And yet I walk it. If I do not, then who?
• 45:31
  The pause is long and longer. For the first time, the echo
• 45:35
  does not answer at once, and when it does, the words are slow
• 45:39
  and deliberate. If not you, then who?
• 45:45
  Parable exhales. The weight of his decision
• 45:47
  presses against his shoulders. This choice was mine to make.
• 45:53
  This choice was mine to make. But the ones ahead, they will
• 45:58
  demand more. They will demand more.
• 46:02
  The echo lingers in the air, reverberating in the hollow
• 46:06
  chamber is no longer simply a reflection of his words.
• 46:09
  There's something else, something deeper, a promise, a
• 46:14
  warning. You will walk a path where no
• 46:18
  answer is easy. You will walk a path where no
• 46:21
  answer is easy. But still I walk it.
• 46:26
  Still, I will walk it. The echoes fade, leaving only
• 46:31
  the distant. Trip, trip, trip.
• 46:34
  Of time passing, and then just before silence claims the space
• 46:39
  entirely. You walk it even now.
• 46:46
  Parable Your oath is renewed, and you see in a little pile of
• 46:54
  paper far away from you, you feel a little struggle of a
• 47:02
  little glowing. Brick, brick.
• 47:03
  I'll get you buddy. I.
• 47:05
  Dive into the pile like broken ribs or whatever I've got.
• 47:08
  I'm full. Head first, hands forward.
• 47:10
  Dive into the paper. It's like sparking and hurt it
• 47:13
  seems like. Oh no, buddy, I'll get.
• 47:14
  You wrong with what looked like just a hunk of stone that glowed
• 47:17
  before, but you can see now as it's struggling to move in
• 47:20
  whatever intrinsically complex ways that it could before.
• 47:25
  It can't now, as your oath is new and fresh and definitely
• 47:30
  vibrant. He's glowing.
• 47:31
  He's glowing consistent and he's not flickering.
• 47:33
  Well, yeah, I didn't renew my house.
• 47:34
  I imbued my house, that's why. I made a new one.
• 47:37
  I just made a new vow within this well, within this place as
• 47:41
  that is. You see twice flip his hand, he
• 47:44
  says. That is the third turning now
• 47:46
  just. Wait, what?
• 47:48
  I said. For but I think it might just be
• 47:49
  once more that you have you looked into the crack of your
• 47:52
  soul and you you should be gone. I think I from what I know, that
• 47:57
  was the way out. That was the way out and twice
• 47:58
  seems to in all of his ancient again find a weird humanness
• 48:04
  about him as he struggles to give you more advice other than
• 48:08
  what he thought was the full way out.
• 48:10
  Look into the deepest part of yourself.
• 48:12
  You've just glowed with light. He's assuming you did with all.
• 48:15
  This I couldn't leave without brick.
• 48:17
  A brick. Come here, buddy.
• 48:18
  And I lift him up and he's imagining like a spherical.
• 48:23
  Rubik's Cube of stone with with runic patterns around it just
• 48:28
  sparking a little bit and normally vibrant and floating
• 48:32
  and I'm like, Oh, buddy, and I think it the anger double S and
• 48:39
  I I take brick and I put them in my my vest pocket of my my.
• 48:44
  I have these monk ropes on that chance made me wear in an apron,
• 48:48
  a leather apron I wore to the the little Book well library
• 48:52
  that I used. And my Cape is torn, so I wrap
• 48:54
  it around my head like a cowl because the sand is starting to
• 48:57
  get in the air. And I keep in the folds of those
• 49:01
  wrappings I keep very close. As you do, you feel this innate
• 49:06
  need within your soul to leave this place, and you're called to
• 49:13
  look up upon the sands that continue to build, and something
• 49:16
  calls you a passage not far up and away.
• 49:20
  Suddenly, something that seems like a way out.
• 49:22
  I will ask you what that crack in the soul of you, in the soul
• 49:28
  of this, what that crack in this well looks like, and what might
• 49:32
  represent the crack in the soul that you've just broken open as
• 49:35
  twice as? What do you see?
• 49:37
  I think, oddly, Parable sees as if he's at standing atop of the
• 49:45
  book well. Again, I think he sees out into
• 49:49
  an upper direction the descents of the book well.
• 49:53
  Interesting. Another considering another
• 49:56
  fall. You notice that it is where the
• 49:58
  sand has been pouring from this whole time, at the very bottom
• 50:02
  of it. You must.
• 50:04
  Climb towards this part that is essentially raining all this
• 50:11
  glimmering sand and seems to represent a decision that you've
• 50:14
  already made. Probably commit to once more
• 50:17
  parable. He's going to ready himself.
• 50:21
  He's going to look around, he's going to talk.
• 50:23
  He's got Brick tucked, he's going to tuck in his book on the
• 50:25
  other side. He's going to ready his pen in
• 50:27
  his chest pocket, and he's going to walk up to the wall and say
• 50:32
  with a lot steadier voice than we've heard from Parable since
• 50:36
  we started. He was shaky, bawling and shaky
• 50:38
  here. It's like.
• 50:41
  It was very nice to meet you twice, but I think it's my time
• 50:44
  to go. Will you tell Shy?
• 50:47
  I wish I could have met her in person, but it was nice to talk.
• 50:52
  He says as you make your way to a precipice, that is a decision
• 50:58
  that is beyond going back. Why don't you tell her yourself?
• 51:03
  And a coin flips out from his hand and almost.
• 51:11
  Meets. Yours without you even needing
• 51:13
  to try to catch it. Suddenly it is in your palm.
• 51:16
  Suddenly, as if you're even, your hand moves of its own
• 51:21
  accord. It is in your pocket, he says.
• 51:24
  I've been down here much too long, but she's been down here
• 51:28
  longer. She deserves a way out.
• 51:32
  So do you. Good luck as this whole, this
• 51:38
  gap in space, this reality becomes a blinding flood of blue
• 51:45
  mixed with a pure bright white light that you just haven't
• 51:49
  experienced censorily before. It eventually overwhelms
• 51:53
  everything and you feel a rush of motion akin to a river, but
• 51:58
  without without the the chaos of it.
• 52:02
  It's all within a streaming one flow, such a flow that it seems
• 52:09
  more smooth than any river could possibly be, and suddenly you
• 52:12
  are ejected and within a sandstorm that you have never
• 52:18
  seen the likes of before. Like I burst from the sand you.
• 52:22
  You basically burst from the sand and you fall, I will say
• 52:25
  less than 10 feet. No damage here, but it's like a
• 52:28
  sudden pop into existence from up and out of the sand and into.
• 52:33
  Reality and onto the sand you can feel.
• 52:37
  So you definitely give me an Arcana check.
• 52:41
  Oh God, oh God. As the the tug of.
• 52:45
  Magic needs stairs. Magic needs stairs.
• 52:49
  Opinion pair will hold for a long time.
• 52:53
  I'm never falling again. That's what was the check.
• 52:59
  Arcana, Arcana. It's just a three.
• 53:01
  Yeah, you have no idea where you just came from.
• 53:05
  Future parable might feel that as like spatial magics, This
• 53:08
  young parable is inexperienced enough where that just feels
• 53:12
  insane that you are just suddenly here.
• 53:14
  Yeah, I, I, I'm assuming that you said there's a sandstorm
• 53:18
  around me. Yes, it is starting to whip up
• 53:20
  you. At first you assumed it to be a
• 53:21
  sandstorm, and then you realize it must be the beginnings of 1.
• 53:25
  As it is starting to whip up in full.
• 53:27
  Oh. It's getting worse.
• 53:28
  I look around, I make sure Brick's with me.
• 53:30
  I check, I check my good book and I try to open my good book
• 53:33
  for advice because it's where I log all of my information that
• 53:37
  I've found in the book. Well, it's where I keep my
• 53:39
  thoughts and it doesn't always give me what I've written, but
• 53:42
  sometimes it gives me what helps and I try to open the good book.
• 53:45
  You are only able to get at the scraps.
• 53:48
  Of paper that you find stuff. Some of them are blank, some of
• 53:50
  them seem like you thought I had.
• 53:52
  Do you like through the effort they fall out?
• 53:54
  Yes. This book has seemed seem to
• 53:56
  have been calling to you for a long time and your holes of
• 54:00
  memory that are just coming back.
• 54:01
  This book has been in your hands many a times in the library and
• 54:04
  many a time. Have you tried to open it.
• 54:06
  It seems, please, that you've started a journey, but you can
• 54:11
  sense the notable. Feeling of silence from the book
• 54:15
  kind of tells you that there is there's more to this path that
• 54:18
  you've just started. Yeah, I think it's shocking to
• 54:21
  have the good book not respond. Bricks not there.
• 54:23
  And I look at a few of the scraps of paper and before I
• 54:27
  even read 1 I remember the coin and I fiddle in my pocket and
• 54:31
  pull it out if I can and look on both sides of the coin just for
• 54:35
  a quick check. On one side of the coin you see
• 54:39
  a ring, and the other side of the coin you see a dagger.
• 54:44
  I flip it back and forth between the ring and the dagger and the
• 54:48
  ring and the dagger, and I flip it back to the the dagger and I
• 54:52
  put it back in my pocket and I pull up the, the makeshift cowl
• 55:00
  around my face made from my Cape, and I start walking
• 55:05
  forward and I, I count. 1. Cool.
• 55:12
  We're going to talk about extreme heat rules within the
• 55:15
  desert and make a couple of rolls here before I describe
• 55:18
  what you see next here. This is going to be kind of
• 55:20
  telling for the states that you are in for what happens next.
• 55:24
  You parable, I think, are walking roll a. 3D four for me.
• 55:34
  That's a 7 total for 3D four. 7 hours in the desert before you
• 55:39
  before you see any sort of. Noticeable thing and we're going
• 55:44
  to do 7 Constitution saving rolls.
• 55:48
  Oh, no. All right.
• 55:52
  Ouch. The 19, that's 3020.
• 56:01
  That's a 18. Damn parables oathism is
• 56:06
  powering him. That's a six.
• 56:08
  That will fail one fail. 6, 15 11. 11 Anything below 12 will
• 56:23
  fail. So how many?
• 56:24
  How many is that 3? 3 total that I've failed so.
• 56:27
  Far but. I don't know how many times that
• 56:28
  was 7. That's seven.
• 56:30
  OK. So three out of three out of
• 56:31
  seven? Three out of seven failures.
• 56:33
  All of all. Around not too bad and I will
• 56:36
  just read the extreme heat environmental when the
• 56:41
  temperature is 100°F or higher. A creature exposed to extreme
• 56:45
  heat and without access to drinkable water must exceed on a
• 56:48
  constitution savings row at the end of each hour or gain 1
• 56:51
  exhaustion level. So parable that is 3 levels of
• 56:54
  exhaustion. Exhaustion rules in 2024 rules
• 56:56
  are just a straight up negative modifier to your role.
• 57:00
  It's your levels times 2. Wow, so you are at the -6 for
• 57:06
  your ability roles and you have not healed.
• 57:09
  You aren't healed by that pop out of the well.
• 57:11
  It's been a tough go of it and you have made a great way, but
• 57:17
  now I will describe what you see.
• 57:20
  So I've been walking for seven hours. 7 hours, OK.
• 57:23
  Can I Can I put some words to that?
• 57:24
  Yes, I think it starts as a small count to 10 and a restart
• 57:31
  and eventually I start trying to check my surroundings but it
• 57:33
  just every time I look upward it the sand tears at my eyes.
• 57:37
  You know, I'm starting to notice like small rips of blood that
• 57:41
  are staining my cowl. So I do my best to keep my head
• 57:44
  down and eventually I lose count and I find myself humming.
• 57:50
  I think it's a song that I don't know, but I I keep it to myself
• 57:54
  and trudge forward. Terrible.
• 57:56
  As you trudge through the desert, I'm sure at times hoping
• 58:00
  to see something to change the landscape.
• 58:02
  Something eventually does. Sun.
• 58:06
  Blazes over the Hourglass desert.
• 58:08
  It's heat relentless when the sandstorm clears.
• 58:12
  At the times that it does, you can see that the sand stretch in
• 58:15
  all directions, shimmering with hues of Crimson, Violet, and
• 58:18
  gold. You stumble forward, exhausted,
• 58:21
  when suddenly the sandstorm clears around you as if pushed
• 58:26
  by a wall of air. The next few moments are
• 58:30
  overwhelming as you find yourself amongst a pack of odd
• 58:33
  creatures. Beans of wind and sand and flame
• 58:38
  and water. Give me a history check.
• 58:41
  I stumble and fall to a knee for a moment where I kind of catch
• 58:46
  myself unaware as I sudden suddenly in this group.
• 58:51
  With three levels of exhaustion, this will be a -, 6 modifiers
• 58:53
  this role. Yeah, I collapse for a moment.
• 58:58
  As you're like pushed aside but and like feel the burning heat
• 59:01
  of a flame elemental being mixed with animal like features.
• 59:05
  History. That would just be an 8.
• 59:09
  You've heard tell of these things.
• 59:11
  It might have been like in a snippet that you've heard of
• 59:15
  half elemental beings that were changed by the great wishing
• 59:21
  that wander the desert. I thought these Wanderers were
• 59:24
  myths. They seem like many of the
• 59:27
  stories that happened outside of the Lands of Favor or within the
• 59:31
  desert that connects it to other worlds.
• 59:33
  They just seem fanciful. This was definitely in the
• 59:36
  fiction section as you are pushed aside with heat and cold
• 59:42
  and gentle gusts of wind at times.
• 59:46
  I had to gravitate towards the cold.
• 59:49
  These elemental primals walk in shifting patterns.
• 59:52
  Some beans of air hover behind above wind walkers that fly over
• 59:57
  your head, while beans of sand and stone stride and measured
• 1:00:00
  steps and push you aside, making way for themselves.
• 1:00:05
  As if one with the terrain you know.
• 1:00:08
  With that check that the ones above you are wind walkers.
• 1:00:11
  These ones of the air and wind, The ones that seem to be made of
• 1:00:17
  stone and sand at times are sand soothers you've heard tell of.
• 1:00:24
  Not all are humanoid as you see, some are animal like or fully
• 1:00:28
  abstract shapes. Amongst the group you see one
• 1:00:31
  walking boulder that like, skillfully surfs the stride.
• 1:00:37
  Yeah, yeah, on my way down my way.
• 1:00:38
  Yeah. It's kind of like what?
• 1:00:40
  I'm sorry. And I move out of those brick
• 1:00:42
  kind of sparked up for a second with the supports as it pissed
• 1:00:46
  off on your behalf. Are you OK?
• 1:00:47
  But went back to sleep. All right.
• 1:00:50
  There is a mixture of elemental and physical features amongst
• 1:00:53
  all of them. Half elemental seems apt.
• 1:00:57
  A multitude of flaming primals, you know these to be flame
• 1:01:00
  singers drifting the loose pack at the caravans core and lastly
• 1:01:04
  at the trail of this caravan of elemental creatures.
• 1:01:07
  Pop image on all sides. Is a group of a few.
• 1:01:10
  Water elemental Browns that you know these to be called great
• 1:01:13
  colors. Smaller than all the other
• 1:01:16
  groups, they move within a very small.
• 1:01:18
  Pack at the very back of the caravan.
• 1:01:20
  Hovering these big spheres of water that you see, there's
• 1:01:24
  these lines of other primals that kind of they get out of
• 1:01:28
  line and they come up and they take little sips of the big orbs
• 1:01:31
  of water that the wave callers hold.
• 1:01:33
  The bubble of air is obviously being held by the wind walkers
• 1:01:36
  above you. The sands you can see are
• 1:01:39
  suddenly just a little bit easier to walk as they are held
• 1:01:42
  by the sand soothers. At least Calmed and the Flame
• 1:01:48
  Singers are are. They just don't burn you alive.
• 1:01:51
  That's the nice thing about them.
• 1:01:52
  Is they they kind of stick to themselves.
• 1:01:54
  They like the way. They're an they're the oddest of
• 1:01:57
  the group, kind of all, some of them talking to themselves at
• 1:02:00
  the very, very. Center of the caravan, just like
• 1:02:02
  almost as if crack lane more than speaking.
• 1:02:06
  Crack lane with flame more than speaking.
• 1:02:08
  Yeah. But I will say at the very end
• 1:02:10
  of this motley crew of primal creatures.
• 1:02:13
  Most of them pay you little mind, except for two figures.
• 1:02:17
  These two stand apart somehow, casting wary glances at their
• 1:02:22
  own caravan members before. Turning their attention.
• 1:02:25
  To you, you catch something in their gaze.
• 1:02:29
  But our other two? Players here tonight like to
• 1:02:31
  introduce themselves. Do we scare you?
• 1:02:38
  We're still. We've been here the whole time,
• 1:02:40
  the. Whole time.
• 1:02:42
  You want to go first or? Hey kid, I'm Phoenix.
• 1:02:47
  What parables? Just staring at the water
• 1:02:51
  floating above, feeling his parched lips barely hurt it.
• 1:02:54
  Yeah, you, but. What?
• 1:02:56
  Wait, I've heard that voice before.
• 1:02:57
  Yeah. You were in the well.
• 1:02:59
  No. Guess where?
• 1:03:02
  Anyway, you can call me Nix. I'm a big fan of flames.
• 1:03:06
  Do you mind if I fan yours, young one?
• 1:03:09
  Nick and Nick Sir, I don't need to be any.
• 1:03:11
  Hotter I No Sir needed, Miss Nix.
• 1:03:14
  Miss Mr. Nix, I please don't make me any hotter than I am.
• 1:03:18
  I might pass out. I beg to differ.
• 1:03:22
  I've seen, I've seen hotter. A parable looks down like
• 1:03:27
  slightly offended. Wish I were taller.
• 1:03:30
  I will say this is Speaking of the heat it seems to have
• 1:03:33
  dissipated. You won't have to be making any
• 1:03:35
  more checks for the extreme heat.
• 1:03:37
  It seems to have its own biosphere in here that keeps you
• 1:03:42
  acclimated to this environment. It feels like I'm inside.
• 1:03:46
  It's a shame, isn't it? I wish they would, just you
• 1:03:48
  don't. Like this.
• 1:03:49
  This is so much better. Oh my gosh, that.
• 1:03:51
  Heat, I go crazy. Are you OK?
• 1:03:55
  No. Are you no.
• 1:03:58
  Perfect. OK.
• 1:04:01
  Welcome. Yeah.
• 1:04:02
  Welcome to the desert. First time here.
• 1:04:04
  Yeah, I absolutely never been here.
• 1:04:07
  I I'm kind of struggling to know where I am.
• 1:04:10
  Well, I'm honored. To give you a big warm hot.
• 1:04:14
  Welcome. You're very punny, aren't you?
• 1:04:16
  No, not on purpose. I think Parable looks around for
• 1:04:21
  a second, looks to, Nixon says. Are we in the Hourglass Desert?
• 1:04:25
  That's way more questions than I'm always prepared to answer.
• 1:04:29
  What do you think? Look around.
• 1:04:30
  You did start talking to me. Well, I was bored.
• 1:04:36
  A new phase, you know. Speaking of Nick, can we please
• 1:04:39
  hear a physical description of what parables interacting with
• 1:04:42
  as this odd little flaming, at times creature flame can't help
• 1:04:47
  but to escape part of your being as a flame singer, I would love
• 1:04:51
  to hear more about Nick's. Yeah, Nick's the Flame singer is
• 1:04:54
  an imp and I sort of am channeling a little bit of
• 1:04:57
  Gollum energy here. Very punched, very like Meek and
• 1:05:02
  gaunt and scrawny and creepy. Sort of like red, orange, brown,
• 1:05:07
  bloody, rust colored and a little like gory looking.
• 1:05:13
  Not actively bleeding, but like disturbing greasy edges of the
• 1:05:19
  skin and folds and flaps and ears and everything is just sort
• 1:05:23
  of like caked in grime. Can I roll insight on the grime?
• 1:05:27
  Yes, you can roll Insight. On this, honey, you don't want
• 1:05:30
  to. Know this impish primal
• 1:05:32
  elemental who seemed half physical being and has features
• 1:05:38
  that hint up in essence of flame gets in your face.
• 1:05:43
  Rolls some insight. Yeah, I think honestly, I just,
• 1:05:45
  I try to reflect as best I can without the help of the good
• 1:05:47
  Book or Brick on anything that I've read or seen before about
• 1:05:52
  this being talking to me. And I got an 11.
• 1:05:57
  With an 11 you. With that -6 too so.
• 1:06:00
  Do you think is Nicks trying to deceive anything about this?
• 1:06:04
  In their interaction it seems like Nicks came up with like a
• 1:06:07
  general helpful attitude. What does Parable see?
• 1:06:12
  Are you rolling specifically for the grime, or do you want to
• 1:06:14
  know just a little bit more I. Think a good clarifying.
• 1:06:17
  Question. I think honestly, mostly for the
• 1:06:19
  grime, but I also kind of just look at your silhouette and how
• 1:06:24
  you're holding yourself again, like the kind of golems creature
• 1:06:27
  and see how you're standing, all of those things.
• 1:06:31
  It's really not polite to. Stare if if you're wondering.
• 1:06:34
  It's a soot. I took a soot bath.
• 1:06:36
  Yesterday they were nice enough to let us stop long enough.
• 1:06:38
  Oh. I thought it I thought it was
• 1:06:40
  some sort of waste. And no, no, I'm clean.
• 1:06:43
  This is I'm I'm, I'm feeling very fresh.
• 1:06:45
  Exactly. Exactly.
• 1:06:49
  Yes, Yesterday it was an everything shower, so it was
• 1:06:51
  really, really divine. Also yeah sorry to bother you, I
• 1:06:55
  just you looked fun to play with.
• 1:06:58
  I I mean I've I have actually never really played parable does
• 1:07:05
  quotes air quotes? Well then, we're both in for a
• 1:07:08
  treat, huh? I you seem so satisfied with
• 1:07:13
  where we are. No, no, no, I'm in hell.
• 1:07:18
  I wish. I wish I was in hell.
• 1:07:19
  I'm like in hell in that it's not hell.
• 1:07:22
  I really wish this was hell. Purgatory Hell, you've, you've
• 1:07:26
  been like being forced to like walk alongside as you have to
• 1:07:29
  keep pace with this caravan, at least in a slight amount.
• 1:07:32
  So maybe you're drifting back slowly amongst the the, the big
• 1:07:36
  group of flame singers and you're having to dodge all of
• 1:07:39
  these ones are that are again muttering to themselves in a way
• 1:07:42
  that seems like not just primal, but also kind of a feral nature.
• 1:07:47
  There's a a lack of sentience about it as Nick's skillfully
• 1:07:52
  and nonchalantly is able to like, guide you around them in a
• 1:07:57
  way that like keeps you away from the ones that are most
• 1:08:00
  like, like flaming suddenly out of just instinct.
• 1:08:05
  But that is the environment that you guys have as you interact
• 1:08:08
  and introduce yourselves for the first time.
• 1:08:10
  The movie from like 2000 and 2001 called Dinosaur.
• 1:08:14
  But I'm imagining like when you cross, I cross paths with like
• 1:08:17
  the front of a herd and I fell to a knee and I'm like watching
• 1:08:20
  these big beings cross by me, you know, from left to right.
• 1:08:23
  And I kind of turned to the back trying to like, well, if they're
• 1:08:25
  going that way, I'm going to try to get to the back.
• 1:08:27
  And all of a sudden I'm at the back kind of salivating over
• 1:08:30
  this water, but then kind of get drawn to get up and walk along
• 1:08:34
  with Nick's as I'm being talked to.
• 1:08:37
  Very down to in almost comfortable way.
• 1:08:41
  I mean, I don't not like the company.
• 1:08:43
  I'm like parables like. I've never had a friend.
• 1:08:45
  Is this what friends talk to each other like?
• 1:08:47
  I'm excited you're here. I wouldn't call us friends.
• 1:08:51
  I mean, I've never had a friend so.
• 1:08:54
  Sure. We'll go with friend.
• 1:08:56
  That's great. In that moment, I think another
• 1:09:01
  of our elemental beings interjects along the way.
• 1:09:06
  Of course, another elemental being that seems made of wind
• 1:09:11
  and. Air.
• 1:09:12
  And. Whatever that is.
• 1:09:18
  That. Lands in the sand.
• 1:09:20
  Lands in the sand by the light. Oh my God.
• 1:09:26
  Who just got to stretch the wings?
• 1:09:29
  Oh, my God. Oh, I love it in my hair.
• 1:09:32
  Oh, hey, Hey there. Oh, man, I know a windswept look
• 1:09:34
  when I see one. Who's your hairdresser?
• 1:09:36
  Who is it? What is going on?
• 1:09:40
  Does everyone see this? Does that have?
• 1:09:41
  Parables looking around at the caravan at Nick's, it's like.
• 1:09:44
  Do you see? Do you see?
• 1:09:45
  Do you see the? Yeah, we're definitely not
• 1:09:47
  friends. Do you know, do you know who
• 1:09:50
  this is? Yeah.
• 1:09:51
  Who are you? Oh well, I thought you never
• 1:09:53
  asked. Well.
• 1:09:54
  In front of you, you see a completely white Raven wearing.
• 1:09:59
  Flight goggles and a. Flight bomber jacket with one
• 1:10:04
  button undone and. This is a really attractive
• 1:10:10
  bird. Thank you.
• 1:10:11
  Thank you. It's not good as Air Diamond,
• 1:10:13
  but it is very fashionable. I'm sorry, I didn't know you
• 1:10:15
  could hear me. Well, I hear lots of things.
• 1:10:18
  I hear lots of things on the wind.
• 1:10:20
  Lots of things on the wind. It's so nice to meet you.
• 1:10:23
  My name is Morgan and call me Moore.
• 1:10:25
  I'd like to fly around here sometimes, but can't get too
• 1:10:28
  crazy otherwise I'll fly away forever.
• 1:10:30
  But I do hop along here sometimes.
• 1:10:32
  And if you don't mind, whoop. And carrot like more like jumps
• 1:10:35
  up onto your shoulder and like you're.
• 1:10:38
  So heavy. Why are you so heavy?
• 1:10:40
  You're so small, Why are you so heavy So.
• 1:10:43
  Out of the weight weight of the. I don't know why I'm Why am I
• 1:10:45
  heavy? I just threw that at you.
• 1:10:48
  Yeah, I like, I like, it's the goggles.
• 1:10:51
  I like the idea because you guys are like, in my mind, wild
• 1:10:57
  beasts. You wouldn't be a light little
• 1:10:59
  bird on the shoulder. You would be something that of
• 1:11:03
  its own accord if it needed to fly and you guys can see that
• 1:11:06
  the air bubble. You can see that the air bubble
• 1:11:09
  has to like reshape as another of the windwalkers takes a shift
• 1:11:14
  because Moore has just dropped down from there's just with a
• 1:11:17
  little bit more style and zest as you can give me a perception
• 1:11:20
  or insight role from all of you guys, but this is on.
• 1:11:22
  Moore's behalf? Parable as well.
• 1:11:25
  Yes. Perception.
• 1:11:28
  Yes, or insight. 16 That's a 14 with dirty 20 -, 6.
• 1:11:34
  A damn dirty 20, dirty 20 - 6 It hurts, it hurts.
• 1:11:39
  It's just a nine. Well, 16 is the only one enough
• 1:11:43
  to catch what are, even without any sort of insight roles.
• 1:11:50
  Just really. Mean looks from the other Wind
• 1:11:53
  Walkers like, whoa. They're a little bit a little
• 1:11:57
  bit quick. On the descent they.
• 1:11:59
  Don't know how to have fun? Don't mind them.
• 1:12:02
  Both of you seem really concerned with fun, aren't you?
• 1:12:04
  Not of worried about the desert killing you.
• 1:12:07
  What I'm worried about is knowing where you got your hair
• 1:12:10
  done. I know windswept look when I
• 1:12:12
  see. One and he's like like more is
• 1:12:14
  like up on your shoulder just one eye like doing like the bird
• 1:12:18
  like look forward to one eye into your eyeball kind of like
• 1:12:21
  looking you around like. You don't have too much of any
• 1:12:25
  respect for personal boundaries. No, no, but it looks like you've
• 1:12:28
  been alone for a long time. Those goggles are off.
• 1:12:31
  Make your eyes awfully big. These sorry, sorry.
• 1:12:34
  Throws him up on his forehead. He's a little tiny.
• 1:12:36
  Bird More. Tiny ass, my eyes, a beady
• 1:12:39
  little eyes. Oh.
• 1:12:41
  Oh, I kind of liked it better with the goggles on.
• 1:12:43
  OK, well. Hey Moore, they're giving you
• 1:12:45
  dirty looks for other bird people.
• 1:12:48
  Hope. They don't know how to have fun.
• 1:12:51
  They can go fast and go fast. Oh, Mr. Moore, you wouldn't.
• 1:12:55
  You're so heavy. But would you happen to be able
• 1:12:58
  to carry me out of this desert? Can you can you fly me out of
• 1:13:00
  here? Oh.
• 1:13:01
  That's that is a complicated question.
• 1:13:04
  Yes, I could. I could.
• 1:13:06
  I could fly for that long. I just like this form I've taken
• 1:13:11
  recently and. Mr. Moore.
• 1:13:13
  Mr. Nix. You're going to be here for a
• 1:13:15
  while. You will be here for a long
• 1:13:17
  while. Oh, it's fun, don't worry about
• 1:13:19
  it. Can I at least have some of the
• 1:13:20
  water? Parable like just feels his lips
• 1:13:23
  like cracked and bleeding and it's just at this point with
• 1:13:26
  three levels of exhaustion, this conversation just feels like a
• 1:13:29
  hallucination I. Always want the water and I
• 1:13:31
  always want the water. Always the fucking water, damn
• 1:13:35
  it. Everyone's always asking for
• 1:13:36
  water. In this introduction of cells,
• 1:13:39
  you've been kind of delaying your progress enough where most
• 1:13:42
  of the caravan caravan has passed, and you've gotten to the
• 1:13:44
  wave callers who hold giant orbs of water as they just kind of
• 1:13:48
  start to hover above. You you see little drips kind of
• 1:13:51
  drop down off of this. Massive.
• 1:13:53
  You can feel the humidity in the air, they drop down and then.
• 1:13:56
  Are just sucked right back up into the like.
• 1:14:01
  When Frodo and Sam are at the top of the mountain and they're
• 1:14:04
  like trying to get the water out of the water bottle.
• 1:14:06
  Humans. How curious humans are you
• 1:14:09
  human? I I would say that I I.
• 1:14:14
  We we all need water more you. It's been actually a while.
• 1:14:20
  Are you going to become one with the wind?
• 1:14:23
  Do you plan on that? Wind Walkers.
• 1:14:26
  They think they're heroics, demands their respect.
• 1:14:29
  Sir, Sir, could I have some water?
• 1:14:31
  Sir, could I have some water as you speak up?
• 1:14:33
  This is, I imagined a very elegant like, not looks like a
• 1:14:39
  frog, but like her. Her very elegant and amphibian
• 1:14:43
  form kind of has suggestions of the frog, but much more slender
• 1:14:47
  and tall as she holds this massive orb of water above her.
• 1:14:52
  She says Miss, Miss massive water, please.
• 1:14:55
  Human. Everyone keeps calling me that.
• 1:14:57
  I thought I was a human when I was young, but I'm I'm a
• 1:15:00
  halfling. I'm sorry, dear, what rules are
• 1:15:03
  rules? Tiny human.
• 1:15:04
  What rules? This is the desert?
• 1:15:06
  How? Why are you all?
• 1:15:07
  Here. Aren't you warm?
• 1:15:08
  Aren't you water? Stays in the cycle.
• 1:15:10
  The cycle stays with us. I am sorry, you are not with us.
• 1:15:14
  You are not with the cycle. Where are you going?
• 1:15:16
  We walk the hourglass path. It is the only way to survive in
• 1:15:19
  the desert. Is is that a way out?
• 1:15:23
  In the coloured dunes there is no way out unless you walk the
• 1:15:29
  hourglass path, but even then it might not lead out just further
• 1:15:34
  in. I can forge my own way,
• 1:15:37
  especially with my new friend. Maybe friends, can I roll for
• 1:15:42
  history or insight on this being in front of me?
• 1:15:45
  Yeah, absolutely. As which which being are you
• 1:15:49
  looking at this wave collar. Wave collar.
• 1:15:51
  Cool. Yeah, it's an.
• 1:15:52
  Would be an 8. 8 is, yeah, just enough to get mainly the name
• 1:15:57
  you're reminded of, but it's, I think, to your oddly desert
• 1:16:03
  addled brain at this point. It's waves.
• 1:16:07
  Where in the desert? Where do they call the water?
• 1:16:10
  From. There's so much water.
• 1:16:13
  Are you sure I can't have any large frog?
• 1:16:16
  Dear, I'm well, I may have had a frog in my ancestry.
• 1:16:22
  Dear you, you must know primals are different and deserve your
• 1:16:28
  respect. We are thinking beings and know
• 1:16:31
  the world doesn't think of us as such.
• 1:16:33
  But. I know you think I just I've
• 1:16:36
  never seen. You, dear, I'm sorry if you keep
• 1:16:38
  speaking and reminding me that you're human, I'm going to have
• 1:16:41
  to kick you out of the caravan. There are rules, honey.
• 1:16:45
  As you see one one guy who like almost drops like a massive bit
• 1:16:48
  of water honey. It's it's fine Polar if you give
• 1:16:56
  out one more free cup of water. I'm telling you, even if it's
• 1:16:58
  within the cycle, the cycle doesn't just but they are
• 1:17:02
  thirsty. So thirsty.
• 1:17:03
  In this economy, yeah, right. I.
• 1:17:06
  Thought you were my friend. I want water too.
• 1:17:09
  The other way of collar is 1 of bulbous and squat nature, but
• 1:17:13
  also amphibian, but with a massive turtle shell on its
• 1:17:18
  back. And as Nick says, I need water
• 1:17:21
  as well. This one, polar it seems, drops
• 1:17:25
  a little droplet of water in front of Nick's.
• 1:17:29
  Wait, no. Sorry.
• 1:17:35
  That. Was for me.
• 1:17:36
  No, I understand. Do you need water?
• 1:17:38
  You don't want to see what happens if I don't get my water.
• 1:17:41
  You just got here, no defense. But what happens?
• 1:17:44
  I just said you don't want to know you don't want to.
• 1:17:47
  See, it's bad. Knowledge is always good.
• 1:17:51
  In due time. He goes crazy.
• 1:17:55
  Hey. You go crazy too.
• 1:17:59
  I just. Get big and flowy and and windy
• 1:18:01
  and and and. Oh yeah.
• 1:18:03
  And what do I get and? What's the word unable to
• 1:18:07
  control? Right.
• 1:18:10
  But in like a fun and fresh way. I'm imagining like little the
• 1:18:14
  little wings. The wings just like up and
• 1:18:17
  animate talking and like flipping around the whole time.
• 1:18:20
  Yes, yes. Puller puller, Can I can I get a
• 1:18:23
  drop of that? Can I get a drop?
• 1:18:24
  Of that, absolutely. When was your last?
• 1:18:26
  You just got off a shift, you're up for two, you're up for 2/2
• 1:18:29
  drop. 2 for two. Torture Moore takes the drop and
• 1:18:32
  it's like a bird at a birdbath that kind of like dips, dips his
• 1:18:35
  head into it. Oh, here, here here.
• 1:18:39
  Like does the little like bird feather shake off?
• 1:18:42
  And like, I'm still on parable shoulders so maybe I get like a
• 1:18:44
  mist on his face or something. I guess that's nice I.
• 1:18:50
  I look around at these seemingly elemental beings of fire, water
• 1:18:55
  and wind and sand and earth, and I turn back to Nyx and more in
• 1:19:01
  front of me as. You look different than them
• 1:19:05
  from everything that I feel on the inside.
• 1:19:06
  I don't think I I need to go with them, but would you come
• 1:19:10
  with me? What do you think more?
• 1:19:14
  I mean, these guys have been kind of boring the last couple
• 1:19:16
  of. Days and nights.
• 1:19:18
  I know we haven't really gotten along either, but I.
• 1:19:20
  Do think we. Can agree on the fact that these
• 1:19:21
  guys are boring. Could you help me out of this
• 1:19:24
  desert? Oh.
• 1:19:25
  I can't make a promise there. Yeah, well, it's not really a
• 1:19:28
  contract or anything. You're, I would never bind you
• 1:19:30
  to anything. It would it would be something
• 1:19:34
  that I'd I'd do with you for fun.
• 1:19:37
  Fun. Parable tries to persuade.
• 1:19:40
  Well, if we do go, I can protect us.
• 1:19:42
  I will always protect us. We might need water at some
• 1:19:46
  point. Can we can we take some of that
• 1:19:49
  Polar looks and says. Don't you have a shift to do
• 1:19:52
  with the the big? Yeah, I can talk to my guy.
• 1:19:57
  Don't you have don't the Flame Singers?
• 1:19:59
  You're the best at taking care of them.
• 1:20:01
  There's all so close to madness. Knicks, you guys are going.
• 1:20:04
  To leave now you want my help, Let them go mad.
• 1:20:09
  Everyone's talking about madness and and and going crazy is that?
• 1:20:12
  It's only a matter of time for you.
• 1:20:14
  Is that something I need to be worried about?
• 1:20:15
  Oh yeah. Why?
• 1:20:17
  What? What makes you go mad in this
• 1:20:19
  place? What doesn't?
• 1:20:20
  Work mad here as the other elegant one.
• 1:20:23
  By the way, my name's Mira. And indeed I too am uncertain if
• 1:20:29
  any of this is quite real. I was once as you can see.
• 1:20:35
  It's not quite what I am now as she her being is now that you're
• 1:20:41
  close and looking at it, a lot of just like shaped water, the
• 1:20:46
  joints being like crystallized ice.
• 1:20:48
  But almost nearly 73% of her is like, just like.
• 1:20:54
  Just literally just water. Or it's like her face in one arm
• 1:20:58
  that is amphibian. I look at her longingly, almost
• 1:21:03
  like accidentally, lustfully. I don't.
• 1:21:07
  Like how you're looking like that, huh?
• 1:21:08
  What? You're looking at me.
• 1:21:10
  His top button is pops open. Just here.
• 1:21:14
  Fine. Just here have a.
• 1:21:16
  Have a drink as she drops one droplet of water from the water
• 1:21:20
  above and drops it on. Parable, but.
• 1:21:23
  I imagine, I imagine it falls and then whips right back up
• 1:21:26
  because I can't have it. As I was going to say as it
• 1:21:29
  falls, give me a sleight of hand check as a gust of wind seems to
• 1:21:33
  try to take it away from as one of the wind walkers catches
• 1:21:36
  sight of this and. That would be just A7.
• 1:21:40
  With a 70 or on it, Well, I will roll this.
• 1:21:44
  I imagine it won't. Yeah, with a dirty 20 the the
• 1:21:50
  gust of wind catches it and and slips it right back up and
• 1:21:53
  puller says. Mira, look at that.
• 1:21:55
  I you thought I was the one that was going to share 1 he was.
• 1:21:58
  Looking at me in a way that I just didn't like.
• 1:22:01
  I was just trying to get him anyways.
• 1:22:02
  You. I don't want to be the one to
• 1:22:04
  kick him out and the wind walkers going to come do it
• 1:22:05
  anyways. We'll catch up to you and like.
• 1:22:09
  2 to 8 business years. Years.
• 1:22:12
  You're not going. To come.
• 1:22:14
  Well, here's the trick I'm all for The wind is fast, the wind
• 1:22:17
  is free. The wind is moving, always down.
• 1:22:20
  To follow the wind, we do need to survive.
• 1:22:24
  It's like tomorrow's problem. Right.
• 1:22:27
  Wait, wait, wait, wait. But you know, I I'm not as
• 1:22:30
  accustomed at going crazy as as you are.
• 1:22:34
  Next. Where'd all your confidence go?
• 1:22:35
  Well, see. OK, well, I like water.
• 1:22:38
  I like water. I like.
• 1:22:39
  Me too. And I feel like we should stay
• 1:22:45
  not to be see I I stay, I stay in the caravan.
• 1:22:48
  I take a shift. They let me have buy water and I
• 1:22:52
  survive. And I like my wings.
• 1:22:53
  I like my feathers. I love this new.
• 1:22:55
  Jacket. And I just, I don't know, one
• 1:23:00
  vote for stay. We can protect him here.
• 1:23:03
  What's your name? Small human.
• 1:23:04
  My name is Parable, Parable, Parsi, Parable parched.
• 1:23:07
  Parched. I I mean parched.
• 1:23:12
  Parched. Parched is fine if you want to
• 1:23:15
  call me that. Perch parable perch.
• 1:23:18
  I love it here. I think parable at this point is
• 1:23:24
  feeling because I didn't really imagine it as like a solid
• 1:23:27
  barrier starting to feel the strain of the desert starting to
• 1:23:31
  creep in on him as the as the protection moves away with the
• 1:23:34
  caravan. And I think he's going to make a
• 1:23:36
  choice right now because it hits him in the stomach as there he
• 1:23:41
  had to say his name and he the person that the the where he's
• 1:23:45
  heard his name the most is out of count chances mouth.
• 1:23:49
  And even in just announcing himself, he thinks of Count
• 1:23:53
  Chance and he's like, I don't know what I can promise you, but
• 1:23:59
  I have somewhere to be and I'd love for you to come with me.
• 1:24:01
  I don't want to be alone. I'm tired of being alone.
• 1:24:04
  And I want to let I want to let the world know that they don't
• 1:24:07
  have to be alone either. That starts with one thing.
• 1:24:10
  And I need to go do that right now.
• 1:24:12
  And he starts standing and walking into the heat of.
• 1:24:16
  In the the desert, he looks at Moore on his shoulder and says,
• 1:24:20
  Mr. Moore, you can stay with me if you'd like, Nix.
• 1:24:23
  I think it'd be a good time if you wanted to leave those
• 1:24:25
  losers. He says that.
• 1:24:26
  Is under his breath as best he can.
• 1:24:30
  Nix and Moore give me a persuasion check here.
• 1:24:35
  Can I roll persuasion? Again, yeah, you can read normal
• 1:24:38
  persuasion. This is basically for how you've
• 1:24:41
  impacted the caravan and who might offer aid.
• 1:24:43
  That one damn. 19. Might be a choice.
• 1:24:48
  Depending on how you're you're you're going off of these first
• 1:24:51
  impressions, Nix might seem like a bad guy.
• 1:24:54
  But you can see Poehler looks towards Nix and seems one sad
• 1:25:03
  that he can't help more and sad that he might they might be
• 1:25:06
  losing one of one of the good ones as he captures water in
• 1:25:13
  such a way as to be like a canteen sized glob of water that
• 1:25:18
  just is thrown to. Nick's.
• 1:25:21
  And I think Parable looks longingly at the water and is
• 1:25:25
  honest. His thirst is quenched in this
• 1:25:27
  moment by the need for vengeance.
• 1:25:29
  He is moving forward and wants to.
• 1:25:32
  If anything, he looks down at his hand and sees some of the
• 1:25:35
  blood on the back of his hand. He drinks that and he keeps
• 1:25:38
  moving forward. That that's insane.
• 1:25:42
  I'll tell you actually roll free that this is kind of a gift to
• 1:25:46
  the Primal Beans who as you heard earlier, mentioned bad
• 1:25:53
  things should they not get water.
• 1:25:55
  And so you've given as it would be for anything's, but these
• 1:25:59
  elbow metal beans need to seem to need it as much, if not more
• 1:26:04
  than you. Yeah, I think Parable finds a
• 1:26:06
  little bit of the resolve that's building in this moment.
• 1:26:10
  As Parable feels like the heat of the desert start to cross
• 1:26:12
  over his face, he looks to the direction the caravan was and
• 1:26:16
  rubs his eyes for a moment with his hands and doesn't see
• 1:26:19
  anything. I feel.
• 1:26:20
  I feel like the caravan fades from view as as soon as I leave
• 1:26:24
  the protection of the the wind and I'm left with.
• 1:26:28
  The caravan as you all leave it I I think you innately have this
• 1:26:33
  little bubble of air from the sandstorm due to more doing
• 1:26:38
  their best and you have a a as the the day has passed, night
• 1:26:43
  has beyond a creep and cold starts to seep in.
• 1:26:46
  You have the flames to keep you warm tonight and I think your
• 1:26:54
  instincts may be to rest. But let me describe what happens
• 1:26:58
  as the caravan disappears with you gone from its protection.
• 1:27:03
  You guys have this small bubble protection.
• 1:27:04
  Night starts to creep in and pass and I won't ask you for an
• 1:27:11
  encounter check yet, but give me a perception check everybody as
• 1:27:17
  night falls. Yeah, I was going to ask as soon
• 1:27:20
  as night falls. I think Parable would take the
• 1:27:23
  again in the establishment of that resolve.
• 1:27:25
  I think he would take the opportunity to to look up for
• 1:27:28
  the first time. 26 for Nicks 15. On the 15 -, 6 is 10.
• 1:27:36
  Enough to notice that the stars are beginning to come out and
• 1:27:40
  Knicks with a 26. More than enough to know and
• 1:27:44
  notice that at night it is said. I don't know if either of you
• 1:27:48
  have been truly outside of the caravan.
• 1:27:50
  When you're not under the protection of the caravan, then
• 1:27:54
  nights the sands start to shift and expand.
• 1:27:58
  There's an oddness to it where they grow into such a way as
• 1:28:04
  it's like quicksand suddenly forming beneath your feet.
• 1:28:07
  Oh, like the universe expanding like all all directions, Yes.
• 1:28:10
  Oh, that's scary. Like.
• 1:28:12
  As if you press copy paste one too many times in an animated
• 1:28:16
  environment, just suddenly more grains of sand.
• 1:28:19
  It's like reverse quicksand. Yes and so like things could in
• 1:28:24
  the next few moments, it doesn't happen every night and sometimes
• 1:28:28
  it's not as fierce, but always do the sands grow when the sun
• 1:28:33
  is down and you're noticing that you guys have a little bit of
• 1:28:37
  time to prepare for it, but it would happen soon.
• 1:28:40
  One of the common sayings amongst primals if you're to be
• 1:28:43
  caught in the night alone would be to to to never stop, because
• 1:28:48
  then that means at night you you'd lose all the ground that
• 1:28:53
  you made-up during the day. You have to keep going at all
• 1:28:56
  times. Parable gets to the top of a
• 1:28:59
  dune I think at the at nightfall, looks up, sees what
• 1:29:04
  he can of the stars and just takes the first free healing
• 1:29:10
  breath and all the pain in his body for a moment doesn't
• 1:29:14
  matter. He looks at the new friends
• 1:29:17
  around him and I think Parable holds his good book and brick
• 1:29:22
  and says I will walk it still. I will walk it still.
• 1:29:26
  Fantastic walking this path, although hard it may be US set
• 1:29:30
  out on this journey and I think there is a good point to end our
• 1:29:35
  session. I think this might be a three
• 1:29:37
  parter we I was going for two parter, but I had I had a lot of
• 1:29:41
  fun in the well. I'm glad we stayed down there
• 1:29:42
  for so long, but I'm excited to see what this desert has to hold
• 1:29:46
  with the sands ever expanding beneath you.
• 1:29:49
  I'm not. The color dunes seem to hold
• 1:29:52
  many dangers, much that I'm sure Nicks and more are aware of and
• 1:29:56
  will be helpful to you along the way, but we shall see next time.
• 1:30:02
  Thank you for listening to this. Flashback Fable, which will be
• 1:30:04
  Part 1 of I expect 3 of parables.
• 1:30:10
  Flashback The Sands of Favor. You can hear more on our Patreon
• 1:30:16
  if you subscribe. Part 1 is just going to be on
• 1:30:17
  the main feed, but Part 2 and three.
• 1:30:19
  If you were interested in the rest of parables back story you
• 1:30:22
  can find ustherethatspatreon.com/diesized.
• 1:30:29
  Die sized. I didn't say it.